


History

by Prism0467 (marley_station)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Anal Sex, Angst, Boss/Employee Relationship, Co-workers, Explicit Language, F/M, Gen, Humor, Kissing, Lemon, M/M, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, NC-17, Nudity, One-Sided Relationship, Oral Sex, Past Relationship(s), Romance, Sequel, Sexual Harassment, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 06:33:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marley_station/pseuds/Prism0467
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/681973/chapters/1251069">Something Has Got to Give</a>.  Shikamaru's ex returns, intent on winning him back. What will Neji do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crazyaanglover](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=crazyaanglover).



> **A/N** : Okay, here’s the deal. I had a good time writing _Something Has Got to Give_ , mostly because it brought me back together with **ShikaNejiShika**. **crazyaanglover** of **deviantART** even drew me some [saucy fan art](http://crazyaanglover.deviantart.com/art/Call-You-Back-124925874) for it! So here is the sequel, written with love for my fan artist.
> 
>  **Warning** : un-beta'd
> 
>  **Disclaimer** : I do not own _Naruto_ or anything associated to it beyond this fanfic.
> 
>  
> 
>  **NOTE: THIS WORK OF FANFICTION WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED TO ADULTFANFICTION.NET ON 19 JUNE 2009**.

It was Haku who spotted him first.  
  
He noticed the handsome muscular man sitting alone in a booth on the other side of the restaurant, trying to observe their table without being obvious. Haku remembered him from the days when he and Shikamaru had been an item. Physically, the man hadn’t changed.  
  
Haku looked across to Zabuza, only to realize he’d spotted him as well. The former wrestler’s shifting eyes and tense physicality spoke volumes.  
  
Zabuza returned Haku’s stare.  _Be ready,_  it told the small, pretty man.  
  
Haku nodded almost imperceptibly in response.  
  
There were four of them sitting in the booth. Shikamaru had suggested lunch at a nearby restaurant, and Zabuza agreed to come along. This, invariably, meant that so would Haku, and now Neji. Tenten had elected to remain behind to complete a module, and it just so happened that Rock Lee was brown-bagging it that day.  
  
Lunch thus far had been a pleasant affair of amiable chatting over tasty lunches while seated at a booth next to the window—even if the main topic of discussion was the work monkey on everyone’s back.  
  
“It will work itself out, it always does”, Neji was heard to say. “I won’t let them furlough any of us.”  
  
“How can you prevent it?” Shikamaru asked, looking at his boss and lover.  
  
Neji smiled back. “The same way I have the last couple of times a situation like this has reared its unpleasant head. Give me some credit, Shikamaru. I am not without my resources.”  
  
Shikamaru smirked at Neji’s statement as he watched the pale-eyed man drink from his water glass. He had become well-acquainted with Neji’s ‘resources’ since the two of them had evolved from merely working together to sharing a bed at night, and wondered if his more intimate ones had been employed to prevent job losses on their team. He wouldn’t put it past their company’s upper management to have manipulated Neji into that kind of a situation. In addition to being exceptionally sharp and flawlessly good-looking, Neji was considerably loyal to his subordinates. In his mind, as the manager he worked for his team, not the other way around.  
  
Shikamaru resolved to ask his lover at home later that evening, even though he didn’t think he’d get an answer. Neji had a one-track mind whenever they were alone together away from the office.  
  
Their server, who had been bustling hither and yon to meet the lunch rush demand, approached their table, water pitcher in hand.  
  
“How is everything?” the server asked as he refilled the water glasses. “Would anyone care for dessert?” He looked at the patrons in the booth, his gaze lingering a bit on the petite, long-haired brunet.  
  
Said brunet raised his hand. “I’ll have a slice of key lime cheesecake”, he informed their server with a grin.  
  
“One slice of key lime cheesecake. Anyone else?” the server responded, returning the brunet’s grin.  
  
“Bring the check when you return with his cheesecake please”, Neji told him in an authoritative voice.  
  
His  _cheesecake?_  “Sure thing”, the server responded after a moment’s hesitation, his grin fading. He furrowed his brows briefly as he walked away.  
  
Haku looked at Neji, who sat next to him, and smiled. “I love that game”, he announced.  
  
“I can tell”, Neji responded, smirking.  
  
Both men were young and remarkably pretty. But while Neji’s voice and build unambiguously announced his gender, Haku, with his small body, classic bone structure and brown doe eyes was often mistaken for female. It didn’t help that he was constantly in the company of good-looking men.  
  
If it was unique to see a man of Neji’s exotic beauty, seeing the two men together was a phenomenon. They had had received the gamut of reactions from people since they’d begun spending time together in public. Neji was growing accustomed to those stares and whispers as he was getting comfortable with their friendly dynamic, and had now begun to enjoy them along with Haku.  
  
Zabuza and Shikamaru eyed the two men from across the booth. “Are you two done toying with the guy’s emotions?” Shikamaru asked. He enjoyed watching them play the game as well. If it wasn’t so entertaining he would pity the inherent predictability of his gender.  
  
“It’s not our fault we’re so sexy. You should try it some time”, Haku gibed.  
  
“No he shouldn’t”, Neji responded without missing a beat, and Zabuza chuckled.  
  
He had initially felt threatened by Neji’s new role as Shikamaru’s lover. After all, this wasn’t the same as when Shikamaru dated before. This man was their boss. But Zabuza soon realized that, no matter whom Shikamaru dated he wouldn’t allow the relationship to displace his friendships. Moreover, Neji seemed to accept Zabuza’s and Shikamaru’s friendship, even if his possessive nature made it seem a grudging one.  
  
“You obviously like playing that game too”, Zabuza assessed.  
  
Haku made a cute face. “Hey, he’s not  _my_  boss”, he responded, smiling.  
  
“That doesn’t mean I don’t know where you live”, Neji told Haku, and everyone laughed.  
  
Shikamaru sighed and moved to slide out of the booth. “I’ll be right back”, he announced, stood up and walked toward the bathroom.  
  
Everyone at the table followed him with their eyes, none of them missing the solitary man across the crowded room who was now obviously watching him as well.  
  
Haku looked at Zabuza, and then at Neji before the server returned with the cheesecake and the check.  
  
“Key lime cheesecake”, he announced in a cheerful voice as he set the plate in front of Haku, pointedly avoiding the man’s eyes. He then set the fold containing the bill on the table in front of Neji, who was still looking in the direction of the bathroom.  
  
“He needs a takeout box for the cheesecake”, Zabuza announced in that no-nonsense, you-better-pay-attention-to-what-I’m-telling-you voice, forcing the server to look up at him.  
  
“No problem”, the server responded, scurrying away.  
  
Haku bit his lip. The current situation was a recipe for disaster. None of them needed a brawl at a restaurant in the middle of a workday lunch rush, but with Shikamaru’s friend and protector next to him and his boss, lover and protector across from him, he couldn’t see it going any other way.  
  
The muscled man across the room got up and walked toward the bathroom. Two seconds later, so did Neji.  
  
“I’ll be right back”, he announced without looking at either of them and walked toward the bathroom.  
  
Zabuza and Haku exchanged knowing glances.  
  
 _Shit._  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
“You’re kidding me”, Shikamaru deadpanned at the sight of his former lover standing outside as he pulled open the bathroom door.  
  
Kiba Inuzuka stood at the bathroom entrance, his hands fingers jammed into the pockets of his denim jeans. He made a thorough and appreciative assessment of his former lover and smiled. “It’s been a long time, Shika. You’re looking good.”  
  
Shikamaru ignored Kiba’s attempt at small talk. “You’re in my way”, he informed him.  
  
“You’re in that much of a hurry to get back to work?” Kiba asked.  
  
“Well, I wasn’t when I came in here”, Shikamaru responded.  
  
Kiba folded his bulging arms and leaned in close enough for Shikamaru to smell his cologne. “Come on, Shika, you can’t tell me you haven’t missed me a little”, he purred in a come-hither voice, all the while eating the man with his eyes. Kiba still remembered how good that lithe, vigorous body felt against his.  
  
Shikamaru shook his head as the familiar scent of the man’s cologne filled his nose. “I’m done with you, Kiba. Now move.”  
  
“If you say so”, Kiba responded, moving forward.  
  
Shikamaru held his ground, bracing his hand against the large man’s chest. “I meant back off”, he told him sternly.  
  
Kiba cocked his head to one side. “Are you sure?” he purred.  
  
Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Kiba hadn’t changed. He was still an arrogant prick.  
  
“That’s what it seemed like to me”, a voice from behind Kiba announced.  
  
 _Fuck._  
  
Both men stiffened before Kiba turned around.  
  
A man as tall as he was stood before him. Kiba recognized him as the man who sat across from Shikamaru at their booth.  
  
Kiba gave him a thorough once-over. He had to admit that the man was easily the  _prettiest_  he’d ever seen. The guy looked like a prom queen with those eyes, that smooth, pale skin and all that long, dark hair.  
  
Especially those pale, gray eyes. Or were they actually… _lavender?_  Whatever their color they were riveting…seductive, even.  
  
Kiba quirked a brow, having decided he liked what he saw.  
  
Neji was momentarily stunned. The wall of muscle was even bigger up close—the guy was broader than Zabuza, but shorter. He was handsome and very well-built, Neji couldn’t help but admit. His short, brown bed-hair was a warmer shade of brown than his own and his body tapered quite nicely from broad shoulders down to a flat stomach and lean hips encased in tight dark-blue jeans. And then there was that pair of red tattoos, one on each cheek, which actually resembled fangs.  
  
Neji thought they went well with the predatory look the man was giving him.  
  
Although Kiba’s large body still blocked Shikamaru’s exit from the men’s room, Neji was able to make brief eye contact with him over the man’s shoulder.  
  
“And who might you be?” Kiba asked in a pleasant voice. He’d turned off his seduction technique in favor of something different.  
  
Neji was far from impressed—or amused. “Well, I might be a guy in a hurry to take a leak”, he responded, slipping a hand into one of the pockets of his pants. “But I happen to be Shikamaru’s boss.”  
  
Kiba’s eyes lit up. So Shikamaru had a gay boss.   
  
He was awfully alpha for such a pretty gay man. Someone less enlightened wouldn’t know what to make of him.  
  
 _Interesting._  
  
He wasn’t Kiba’s type. He was too tall, too pretty and far too alpha for Kiba’s disposition. That didn’t mean Kiba couldn’t appreciate the idea of making him submit, or that he wasn’t, at that very moment in his mind.  
  
What might Shikamaru think of this pretty alpha boss of his if Kiba revealed to him that the man spent the evening on his knees stuffing his face with Kiba’s cock?  
  
 _Very_  interesting.  
  
Kiba moved forward, not unlike an animal stalking prey. “You got a name, boss?” he asked.  
  
Neji resisted the urge to make a face. “Not that I’m at all inclined to share with you”, he replied calmly. Thank goodness he’d had the foresight to conceal his employee badge before making his presence known.  
  
He made a performance of meeting Shikamaru’s eyes over the man’s shoulder. “Shikamaru, we need to get going”, he announced in an authoritative voice.  
  
Shikamaru nodded wordlessly, a nominal attempt to offer reassurance.  
  
But Kiba wasn’t satisfied. “Shika and I were in the middle of something”, Kiba told Neji. “You’ll get him back when I’m done with him.”  
  
 _Motherfucker._  
  
Neji’s eyes transformed from cool to downright scary. This…intruder in front of him had some nerve.  
  
Neji needed to maintain his calm. If he reacted the way he  _really_  wanted to he’d be giving himself away as Shikamaru’s lover after already revealing himself to be his boss, and at the moment that wasn’t a good idea. This wasn’t the time or the place to reveal the truth about their relationship.  
  
“Shikamaru is coming back to the office with us”, Neji announced, keeping an even level to his authoritative voice. “Right now.”  
  
Kiba quirked a brow. So the  _girlfriends_  were sticking together, eh?  
  
He moved closer to the attractive man, whose eyes had transformed into something that would have been formidable if Kiba didn’t know how big and powerful he was but that Kiba still found incredibly sexy.   
  
“I can tell you’re new, so I’m going to let you off with a warning”, Kiba informed Neji. “Shika and I have a history that you know nothing about. Be on your way. I’ll send him back to work when I’m done.”  
  
 _History._  
  
Neji’s heart ached. His suspicion that this man was someone Shikamaru once knew had been spot-on. He hated it that he’d been right. It made him want to annihilate the man all the more.  
  
The bastard was encroaching. He had no call to be there, in the space between him and Shikamaru, filling their personal zones with his hulking presence.  
  
 _Daring_  to claim squatter’s rights.  
  
Neji had earned Shikamaru. They were together now, and happy. Neji would be damned if he allowed this guy to breeze in from Shikamaru’s past and take him back.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Shikamaru stood quietly in the doorway of the bathroom, watching his present collide with his past. He wished that the exchange of highly-charged words would be the end of it, but he knew better.  
  
Particularly since Zabuza had yet to make his inevitable appearance.  
  
Kiba knew Zabuza only too well. He’d paid a visit to the office after Shikamaru moved out of their apartment and took up temporary residence on Zabuza’s couch the previous year, demanding to see the man who’d allegedly ‘interfered’. In spite of Shikamaru’s plea to ignore him, Zabuza met Kiba in the parking lot. What followed was a seemingly endless bloody-knuckle battle royale that took seven people to break up. It left Zabuza with a black eye and split lip and Kiba doubled over in pain.  
  
There had been no more visits after that day, and no more phone calls either. Kiba slipped as quietly as he knew how from Shikamaru’s life, never to be seen or heard from again.  
  
Until today.  
  
“So troublesome”, Shikamaru sighed from behind Kiba. He closed the door of the bathroom and then turned the bolt to lock it before Kiba realized what had happened.  
  
Kiba turned and tried to push open the door, but in vain. It frustrated him before he realized the situation hadn’t really changed. Shikamaru still had to get past him to get out of the bathroom.  
  
But what was he doing in there?  
  
Kiba turned back to face Shikamaru’s boss, only to come face-to-face with six feet and three inches of brute force invading his own personal space.  
  
“You should have known better.”  
  
The voice of Shikamaru’s friend hadn’t changed. It was still a deep and imposing monotone intended to strike fear in the hearts of his opponents. If that wasn’t enough, the man was bigger than he’d been a year ago.  
  
Kiba gulped. He didn’t want to have to tussle with this beast another time. He pissed blood for three days after their last encounter. The kid was a wrestler with a zany amount of speed and strength, not to mention a killer instinct.  
  
Still, Kiba wasn’t satisfied. He’d followed Shikamaru to this restaurant from his office building with every intention of convincing him to take him back, and he wasn’t about to just give up.  
  
Where had the alpha prom queen gotten off to? Kiba forced himself not to try to look around his opponent.  
  
“I remember you. You’ve got some weird name that starts with an unusual letter, Q or Z or something. What was it?” Kiba asked in a mocking tone.  
  
“Zabuza”, the man announced. “Try to remember it while I’m punching your head through the wall.”  
  
Kiba made a face. “Aw, how cute! You’re still baby-sitting Shika after all this time. Or have you finally succumbed to your latent homosexuality and given in to his charms?”  
  
That was all it took. Zabuza moved in a flash, gripping the front of Kiba’s shirt in his fist and slamming him against the back wall, the force of it pushing the air from the man’s lungs and causing his head to bounce off a framed photograph, cracking its glass shield.  
  
Kiba grunted.  
  
“Either way the game hasn’t changed. If you want Shikamaru you’ve got to get through me first”, Zabuza challenged.  
  
Just then both men heard Shikamaru emerge from the bathroom. Zabuza tightened his hold on the man’s shirt and pushed him harder against the wall in response, causing Kiba to grit his teeth.  
  
“That’s fine with me”, Kiba growled. “I’ll give you a black eye to match the one I gave you last time.”  
  
“Then make your move”, Zabuza invited.  
  
Kiba was frustrated. This wasn’t going at all the way he’d planned. He expected that time would fix things, but it hadn’t. Shika was still surrounded by a fan club that catered to him as though  _he_  were the celebrity. This Zambezi was as straight as a nail—why did he even care what Shika did, or with whom? But here they were, and there was no doubt in Kiba’s mind that Zambuca, or whatever the hell his name was, was totally prepared to beat him to a pulp where they stood over Shika.  
  
Why hadn’t he come around after all this time? Hadn’t Shika cared for him?   
  
“Is there a problem here?” Another authoritative voice announced.  
  
Zabuza looked over his shoulder to find two uniformed policemen standing there. Behind them stood Neji and Shikamaru, and probably Haku, who was so short he wouldn’t have been visible.  
  
Zabuza backed up, releasing his hold on Kiba’s shirt, and turned to the gathering, shaking his head.  
  
He started to walk past the officers until one of them stepped in front of him. “Just hold on”, the officer commanded.  
  
“Officer, he’s with us”, Neji spoke up from behind where they stood.  
  
A check of the badge hanging from a lanyard around Zabuza’s neck corroborated Neji’s statement.  
  
The officer turned to Neji then. “Get your people out of this restaurant”, he directed.  
  
“Yes sir”, Neji responded.  
  
The officer moved aside to allow Zabuza to pass. Holding his take-out container of cheesecake in a vice-like grip, Haku turned and led the queue of them out of the restaurant without another word.  
  
Both officers turned back to where Kiba stood adjusting his clothing.  
  
“Officers, thank goodness you’re here. I’d like to press charges against ‘the Matterhorn’ there for assault”, Kiba announced, jerking his head toward Zabuza’s retreating form.  
  
“Before or after you explain why you unlawfully attempted to imprison his colleague in the men’s room?” one of them responded.  
  
Kiba frowned.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
After it was confirmed that no one had been physically hurt, the foursome drove back to work in awkward silence. Shikamaru was trying and failing to look unaffected by all that had occurred, not able to meet what he suspected were Neji’s disappointed eyes.  
  
The remainder of the work day seemed to drag on endlessly. It was astonishing how little was achieved while trying  _not_  to remain preoccupied with the afternoon’s events.  
  
When the work day was finally over, Shikamaru and Neji left in their respective vehicles. They hadn’t spoken to each other much after lunch, and what conversation they did share had been confined to work issues. It was their rule that they behave themselves during business hours, and it seemed much easier to follow than usual.  
  
Shikamaru went home and had a bath, preferring to skip his usual trip to the gym. He didn’t want to eat or communicate with anyone. As he sat submerged to his armpits in the warm, bubbly vanilla-scented bath water he allowed his mind to wander where it would.  
  
God, what was that imbecile doing back  _now,_  after a year?  
  
Shikamaru had found himself a new apartment, bought new furniture, and moved on. The emotional aspect of that had been difficult to bear. He loved Kiba, and the man’s betrayal stung him to the point where the word ‘date’ had become the proverbial four-letter one. He clung to the workday hours, not only because he had good friends where he worked, but because it helped to balance out those endless nights of solitude. Shikamaru was a man who had always thrived on physical affection, and going without it for so long had been…   
  
He’d endured the routine of internalizing the breakup and shedding the requisite tears before deciding that even for a woman, which he clearly was  _not,_  enough was enough.  
  
Not long after that, Neji had come along.  
  
Technically, he’d been there the entire time. But he was Shikamaru’s boss and he had been involved with someone else. Still, Shikamaru couldn’t help but admit to having found him attractive from the first day.  
  
Neji was a paradox. He was a sexy pretty boy with a masculine demeanor. He was highly skilled software engineer who took his job seriously. When he wasn’t at work he was a different person, with the best sense of humor and the libido of an eighteen-year-old.  
  
And he was hot for Shikamaru. Of that there was no question. Shikamaru could hardly believe it when Neji revealed his attraction to him that night at Patterson’s happy hour just one month ago. Since then they’d carried on like a couple of horny teenaged boys. Shikamaru was happy again.  
  
Or, perhaps Shikamaru was  _finally_  happy.  
  
Daring to contemplate a future with Neji was a double-edged sword. After all, he’d done that with Kiba, only to have it blow up in his face. And as much as he’d like to believe that Kiba and Neji were worlds apart, he couldn’t afford to deceive himself in that regard. They had both been jocks, and were leaders in their respective fields. They were both handsome alpha males with incredible sex drives who made lots of money and drove fancy sports cars.  
  
There was an important difference, though. Kiba had always insisted that Shikamaru make him the sun in his universe. And in the beginning of their relationship it was something Shikamaru wanted to do. It was easy, fun even.  
  
Eventually, though, having one celestial body in orbit around his insatiable ego was no longer enough for Kiba.  
  
To Neji,  _Shikamaru_  was the sun. He had been shocked to learn that, beyond Shikamaru’s many close friendships there hadn’t been anyone locked in orbit around  _him._  
  
Neji had gleefully assumed that role at some risk and then spent the past month reminding him at every opportunity how lucky he felt. Not just with words, but with care and devotion. Neji adored Shikamaru. He pampered and spoiled him to excess, especially with those kisses and cuddles he needed so much.  
  
They hadn’t used the word love. It was far too soon for that. But there was mutual, honest-to-goodness care, Shikamaru was sure of that.  
  
Shikamaru hadn’t counted on what happened at the restaurant to occur. But it had, and now Shikamaru felt like a fraud. He knew he shouldn’t feel ashamed about his relationship with Kiba; it had been a year since it ended and Shikamaru had been faithful to Neji since they’d become an item.  
  
Still, he couldn’t help feeling like Kiba’s return had somehow made Shikamaru look like a liar in Neji’s eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning** : un-beta'd

It was 7PM. Outside of Shikamaru’s bedroom window the setting sun still shone in a cloudless blue sky. The wind whipped through branches on trees that bore fresh green leaves. It was an image that evoked picnics in the grass and kids riding scooters, and yet all Shikamaru wanted to do was go to sleep and shut it out of his mind.  
  
He closed the blinds and settled on his bed with a sigh, clad only in red plaid pajama pants, a seasonal gift from a female colleague who was always asking him to take down his hair for her. Shikamaru always politely declined; he only ever wore his hair down at home. It was an unspoken rule and one of the ways he maintained mystique.  
  
He closed his eyes and rested his folded hands on his chest, allowing his weary mind and body to sink into the comfortable pillows and mattress beneath him.  
  
It was then that someone knocked on the door.  
  
Shikamaru’s eyes opened lazily. Given the day’s events, the person or persons standing on the other side of his apartment door could be anyone, so there wasn’t any point in panicking. Still, he couldn’t stop the tightening of his stomach and the unbidden rush of adrenaline.  
  
Shikamaru got out of bed and walked to the front door. Thank goodness for the combination of a peephole and the slowly decreasing sunlight of a May evening.  
  
Relief and a different kind of anxiety surged in Shikamaru at the discovery of Neji standing on the other side of the door.  
  
Shikamaru opened it slowly. The warped version of him visible through the peephole hardly did Neji justice, though in the spirit of the situation seemed oddly appropriate.  
  
Hopeful eyes settled on Shikamaru. “May I come in?” Neji asked.  
  
Shikamaru opened the door wider and moved aside to let him in.  
  
Neji rounded on his lover as he closed and locked the door. God, he looked so fucking  _good_  standing there, shirtless and wearing pants that looked like a candy cane and made Neji ache to lick him like one.  
  
He rarely found himself in situations where he had to maintain so much control over his reactions. To say the day had been trying was an understatement, particularly at that moment.  
  
Neji held up the bags in his hand. “I brought us something”, he announced, trying to focus his thoughts.  
  
He pulled a bottle of white wine from one bag and some warm containers of take-out from the other.  
  
“I didn’t know if you’d eaten. I haven’t, but I didn’t want to eat alone”, Neji confessed. “I hope you don’t mind.”  
  
Shikamaru eyed the food and the wine. As last meals went, he thought Neji could have done much better. Since it didn’t seem like a very Neji-like last meal, Shikamaru assumed it wasn’t one.  
  
He stretched his arms above his head, a gesture meant to relax him. “No, I don’t mind”, he responded, smiling.  
  
Neji’s control was already dissolving. The whole way over in his car he thought of taking Shikamaru in his arms and fucking the memory of that other man from his body, if not his mind or heart. Even now, as his arousal increased at the sight of his lover’s drool-worthy body stretched toward the heavens, he could feel the chasm between them.  
  
“I’ll get some plates and glasses”, Shikamaru announced, lowering his arms and moving toward the kitchen.  
  
He was almost across its threshold when strong arms wrapped around his waist from behind, pressing him back against a very firm body. Instantly, Shikamaru felt some of his tension drain away.  
  
“Shikamaru”, Neji spoke in a desperately needy voice. He lowered his head to the smaller man’s throat, kissing the pulse now beating madly there.  
  
Shikamaru closed his eyes, leaned his head to the side and silently thanked God that Neji Hyuuga was there holding him in his arms, where Shikamaru wanted to be the most.  
  
“Say my name again”, he entreated.  
  
“Shikamaru.” Neji’s voice was breathless, an urgent turn-on. “You smell like cookies”, he announced as he rained kisses over the man’s neck and shoulders.  
  
Shikamaru couldn’t help but smile as he turned to face Neji, wrapping his own arms around the man’s neck and giving in to the urge to kiss him before he had a chance to talk himself out of it.  
  
Their coming together was intense. Neji wrapped his arms tighter around Shikamaru, pressing their bodies impossibly closer, as he slid his tongue into his mouth and tasted him for the first time since the early morning hours. Shikamaru tasted clean and sweet and smelled like cookies and all Neji wanted to do was pull his pants off his body, trap him against the wall and puncture him repeatedly until they screamed out their orgasms in unison.  
  
A hand desperately gripping the waistline of the pants he wore stopped Neji’s attempt to remove them in its tracks.  
  
“Wait”, Shikamaru pleaded breathlessly. His body was so warm, ridiculously warm, and taking off the pants seemed like an excellent remedy, really.  
  
But they couldn’t. Not yet.  
  
Neji looked at him with questioning eyes.  
  
“Neji, we need to talk about what happened today”, Shikamaru announced.  
  
Neji rubbed the tip of his index finger across Shikamaru’s bottom lip. “We don’t need to talk about it now”, he murmured.  
  
Shikamaru nodded. “Yes, yes we do—“  
  
“Don’t leave me!” Neji interjected, pulling his finger away.  
  
Shikamaru’s brows furrowed as Neji continued. “Is that what you want to say? That you want to go back to him?”  
  
“Is that what you think?” Shikamaru asked him, stunned. “Neji, I-I thought you wanted to break it off with  _me.”_  
  
“Are you crazy?”  
  
Neji was stunned. How could Shikamaru think that he would want to leave him?  
  
He stepped back from the wide-eyed Shikamaru, still panting. He reached behind himself to release his hair from its band, tossing the thing aside.  
  
“Shikamaru”, he called as he slowly unbuttoned his shirt. “I thought you might hate me after today. Somehow, I thought I should have been stronger, cleverer for you.”  
  
Neji left his shirt unbuttoned but didn’t remove it, opting to remove his shoes and socks instead. “He was so close to you. He’s a big guy, and he seemed fearless. I felt like a failure standing there.”  
  
Neji unbuckled his belt and removed it from his pants, watching his lover’s face for his reaction. “I had my balls in my mouth. I wanted to stake my claim, to tell him you were mine and drag you away from him.”  
  
Neji shook his head as he dropped the belt to the floor. “But I didn’t”, he continued.  
  
Neji slowly slipped his shirt off his shoulders and let it fall to the floor, pleased that Shikamaru had become visibly flustered.   
  
Now they were even. Well, more or less. Neji still wore boxers beneath his trousers but beyond that, the two shirtless barefoot men with their hair unbound stood face-to-face.  
  
“I felt like a disappointment to you. I was going to tell you tonight that, that I’m sorry and to not hate me and to forgive me for being weak—“  
  
“Stop”, Shikamaru interjected, shaking his head. Neji’s confession-cum-striptease had had a disarming effect.  
  
He took one of Neji’s hands in his own and placed it against his jumping erection. “You haven’t done anything to feel like a failure about”, he continued.  
  
Shikamaru’s eyes fluttered shut when that hand began to move, cupping and squeezing the tent in his pants.  
  
“I don’t want him”, he declared as Neji kissed and sucked at his neck and jaw.  
  
“Who do you want?” Neji asked, taking Shikamaru’s hand and pressing it to his own hyper erection. “Say it.”  
  
“I only want you, Neji.”  
  
The tent in Neji’s pants was threatening to become a hole again. God dammit. It was both sin and shame how easily Shikamaru reduced him to a mindless sex machine.  
  
Neji moved his lover’s hands to the waistband of his trousers. “Show me”, he told him.  
  
Shikamaru didn’t hesitate. He unbuttoned Neji’s trousers and slid them down his legs along with his boxers, waiting for Neji to step out of them to push them to the side. Then he got on his knees in front of him. Entranced by the scent of Neji’s musk and the sight of Neji’s bouncing, jutting erection, he grabbed the base of the hardened flesh with one hand and stuck out his tongue, using it like a fishing rod to try to catch the pre-cum sliding out of its tip.  
  
Neji buried a hand in Shikamaru’s hair.  _“Fuck,_  Shikamaru”, he exclaimed at the highly erotic sight. “I’ll come right now.”  
  
“Then come”, Shikamaru answered him, looking up into those moonlit eyes.  
  
 _Oh, boy._  
  
Neji was in heaven. Shikamaru could be very cheeky. It was a side of him no one but Neji ever saw, a highly erotic side that demanded sexual satisfaction. Neji was completely helpless against it.  
  
“I’ll come after you take off those pants and bend over for me”, Neji negotiated.  
  
Shikamaru licked the pre-cum from the tip of Neji’s erection, slowly so he wouldn’t miss any and even stopped to stick the tip of his tongue into the slit before getting up from his knees to stand in front of him. He framed Neji’s face with his hands and kissed him hard and fast, injecting his tongue into his lover’s mouth and letting him share the taste of his own cum.  
  
“I’ll take them off right now and bend over for you IF”, Shikamaru emphasized that last word as he stepped back away from Neji, “you answer me one question.”  
  
Neji quirked a brow. “Hurry up”, he told Shikamaru as he advanced on him, erect and predatory, his hair draping wildly around his shoulders. “I swear there’s a powerful homing beacon lodged in your ass.”  
  
Shikamaru chuckled as he backed slowly into the living room.  
  
“Today at lunch”, he began, and Neji stilled. “You were talking about a possible furlough and might-have-been furloughs and the resources you may have had to employ in order to prevent them. To what resources  _specifically_  were you referring?”  
  
 _Son of a bitch._  
  
To be fair, Neji should have known the question was coming. Nothing ever got by Shikamaru, and he knew this. The fact that it was coming now, at the end of the bizarre day they’d had while Neji stood naked and hard in Shikamaru’s living room, though, could hardly have been predicted.  
  
Blind-siding--one of Shikamaru’s many special gifts.  
  
“You’re not allowed to ask me a question like that while you’re still wearing pants”, Neji stonewalled.  
  
“They don’t come off until I get a decent answer”, was Shikamaru’s response.  
  
Neji closed the space between them, wrapping an arm around Shikamaru’s waist and pressing a kiss to his lips in concession.  
  
“We’ve had this discussion before, Shikamaru”, he began, his expression serious. “Being a manager for our company is what it is. I expect that cutting my teeth there should both educate and re-educate me.”  
  
Neji swallowed a compulsion to bite his lip. He knew that what he  _wasn’t_  going to tell Shikamaru would be more revealing than anything he actually  _said,_  but the question demanded an answer all the same.  
  
“Now I haven’t been management long enough to fully understand why anything I’ve done in that capacity should make me feel shame but I can honestly tell you this. Since we’ve been together I have been faithful to you.”  
  
Shikamaru’s face fell. “Oh, Neji”, he murmured, looking away.  
  
Neji framed his lover’s face with his hands, forcing him to meet his gaze and shook his head. “No”, he exclaimed. “No pity, no sorrow.”  _And no disappointment._  “We discussed this.”  
  
“But Neji—“  
  
“Shikamaru”, he interjected, looking into his eyes. “No matter how any of it goes down I won’t betray you. Do you understand that?”  
  
“You’re not just telling me what I want to hear?” Shikamaru asked.  
  
Neji resisted the urge to feel heartbroken. “After what your ex put you through, do you honestly think I’d come here and beg you to stay with me if I were cheating on you too?”  
  
Shikamaru shook his head and covered the man’s hands with his own. He’d been anxious about many things since they’d begun dating but, surprisingly, not about Neji being unfaithful.  
  
Hell, it wasn’t as if Neji even had the time. The two men were always together when they weren’t working, and that usually meant that Neji had some part of his anatomy buried deeply in some part of Shikamaru’s.  
  
Neji pressed a light, sweet kiss to Shikamaru’s lips.  
  
“Margin call”, he announced, smiling at the prospect of Shikamaru being naked.  
  
Shikamaru’s face split into a broad smile. “Fair is fair”, he responded.   
  
He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his pants and slipped them over his ass and down his muscular legs, then stood up and stepped out of them.  
  
He felt the combination of cooling air and heated skin against his erection and gasped.  
  
Shikamaru backed away from Neji again and surprised him by bending into a backbend.  
  
The sight of Shikamaru’s erection jutting out from his bent body like a lever might have been entertaining if Neji wasn’t preoccupied with trying to figure out how they could do it while Shikamaru was in that position.  
  
Neji crouched behind his lover, studying his body. “How long can you stay like that?” he asked.  
  
“Not sure”, Shikamaru answered. “We’d have to give it a test run.”  
  
Neji quirked a dark brow. As sexually playful as the pair was, they’d never had sex in that position. Logistically speaking, it didn’t seem feasible; although Neji had made that claim many times in the previous month only to have Shikamaru prove him wrong.  
  
Neji had negotiated that Shikamaru take off his pants and bend over in exchange for an answer to his question. He hadn’t specified in what direction to bend.  
  
The flexibly-gifted Shikamaru had taken license with the terms of the negotiation, but the ever-resourceful Neji was not about to let that stop him.  
  
 _I have got to be the luckiest bastard in the solar system._  
  
He stood up. “I’m going to get lube. I’ll be right back.”  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Thirty minutes later, a very post-coital blissfully happy Shikamaru lay swaddled in the arms of his lover on the living room floor.  
  
“You’re amazing”, Neji declared. “Just when I think I’ve got you figured out you go and defy the laws of physics in a whole new way.”  
  
“And it only cost me the use of my legs”, Shikamaru responded, smiling.  
  
“That’s only temporary”, Neji said.  
  
“You’re only saying that because you were on top”, Shikamaru replied.  
  
“Actually, it’s wishful thinking”, Neji corrected him, pressing a light kiss to his lips. “I’m ready to go another round.”  
  
Shikamaru smiled up at his lover. “You’re insatiable”, he declared.  
  
Neji tightened his hold. “I am for you”, he responded.  
  
He watched as his lover practically purred at being snuggled in his arms and smiled. When they were together this way it was as if they were on their own plane of existence. Neji found it liberating to be with a man and be  _incapable_  of thinking of anything or anyone but him while in his presence.  
  
Perhaps he truly was evolving from his chronic workaholic persona. He certainly hoped so. As he thought back on the past year, he realized that he hadn’t been fair to his previous lover. Neji constantly made work a priority and it had turned him into someone very different from the person he’d been when they’d first met, someone who made the redheaded man feel unwelcome in his life, and unappreciated. Their breakup had been marked by a very callous exchange of words. Neji didn’t realize it then, but his ex had been acting out of hurt, not just because he’d felt rejected as a lover, but also as a friend.  
  
Neji deeply regretted the hurt he’d inflicted on him. And looking at Shikamaru now, curled against his body and wearing a sated expression, it was clear to Neji that forgiveness for his sin had come in the form of Shikamaru’s entry into his life, and that if Neji wanted to hold on to this new good thing he would have to make real changes, permanent changes, so as not to repeat his unfortunate mistake.  
  
Shikamaru was his angel sent from Heaven, and Neji was determined not to let him get away.  
  
“Hey”, Neji gently called to his angel, who looked up to find pale eyes scrutinizing him.  
  
They lay there together that way, content to watch each other silently as the rest of the world faded from their consciousness.  
  
The knock on the door moments later almost went unnoticed.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Both men scowled as realization dawned.  
  
“Who the hell could that be?” Neji asked.  
  
“Given the day’s events, anyone”, Shikamaru answered. “We should answer it.”  
  
“Well, when you do, tell them their timing sucks ass”, Neji responded as he unwrapped himself from his lover and got up from the floor. He extended a hand to Shikamaru.  
  
“I just hope they’re…the patient sort”, Shikamaru said, taking Neji’s hand and standing up on shaking legs with a pained grunt. “I just spent the past half-hour being fucked hard in a strange position. I won’t make it to the door any time soon.”  
  
Neji rolled his eyes. “Oh all right”, he relented, turning to pick up their trail of clothes from the floor and handing them to his lover. “Take these with you to the bedroom. Hopefully, whoever it is will leave once they get a whiff of the room.”  
  
Shikamaru handed him back his candy-cane pajama bottoms. “Put some pants on”, he told Neji, “or they might never leave.”  
  
Shikamaru gave Neji another quick kiss as he made his way down the hall toward the bedroom with a turtle’s pace, bracing one arm against the wall and wincing as he walked.  
  
A smug and smirking Neji watched until Shikamaru was out of sight before he slipped the pajama pants on. The someone on the other side of the door knocked again as Neji approached, this time longer and with more force.  
  
Neji placed an eye to the peephole in the door and frowned.   
  
 _Stalker._  
  
Shikamaru’s old flame stood on the other side.  
  
Neji’s initial response was angry protective rivalry. That emotion dissolved quickly, however. He realized that the man had probably followed Shikamaru home from work, hoping he’d be alone or without Zabuza at the very least, and waited nearby all this time--only to make his move moments after Neji finished rug-burning the object of his interest on the floor behind the couch. The room reeked of their latest encounter. In fact, so did Neji.  
  
He smirked. This situation would likely draw the man’s ire, but Neji wasn’t all that worried. Whatever—whoever--the man thought he was to Shikamaru was irrelevant. The choice had been made.  
  
Of course, the situation was potentially risky. But Neji was acting from a position of strength. The objective was to get the man to leave—without violence--and to convince him that there was no reason to revisit the train of thought that led him back to Shikamaru ever again.  
  
Neji took a deep, calming breath.  
  
 _I’ll play it cool,_  he thought as he unlocked and opened the door.  
  
 _But not_  too  _cool._


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> **History** , courtesy of the lovely [crazyaanglover](http://crazyaanglover.deviantart.com/) and used with permission.

Kiba’s jaw dropped.  
  
He didn’t know that he expected  _anything_  when he knocked on the door, but he certainly  _hadn't_  expected to find Shikamaru’s shirtless boss, looking thoroughly mussed and smelling of sex, answering his former lover’s door in his bare feet.  
  
Kiba took in the long, tousled hair that fell in striking contrast around the man’s pale shoulders, the kiss-swollen lips, and the semi-matted sprinkle of hair that covered the man’s toned chest.  
  
But what Kiba found most revealing were the man’s eyes. They were darker, more liquid, and seemed to beckon to him, entreating him to reach out and pull the man closer.  
  
Kiba gulped as confusion, anger and lust raged inside him. Sure, the man was an alpha type, but he was far too pretty to be a top. Kiba had pegged him for a bottom, like Shikamaru, for sure. This didn’t make sense! How had he managed to get into the apartment without Kiba knowing?  
  
And how long had his nameless-prom queen-bottom-top boss been screwing Shikamaru?  
  
 _God dammit._  
  
Kiba figured he’d get his chance to talk sense into Shikamaru when he was at home, without his ‘bodyguard’ protecting him. He’d devised a makeshift strategy in the event the kid made an appearance, but he never factored in anyone else. It never occurred to him that Shikamaru might have found someone new. He never would have guessed it’d be his boss, who was apparently a true alpha, more like Kiba than he was prepared to admit to himself.  
  
And if that wasn’t enough, the man looked like a god standing there, assessing him with those hypnotic eyes, oozing sex from every pore.  
  
It made Kiba ache to dominate him.  
  
“It isn’t polite to stare”, Neji stated, dragging Kiba out of his thoughts. His voice held a seductive timbre that Kiba couldn’t ignore.  
  
Kiba moved closer to where his opponent stood, on the threshold of the apartment but not inside.  
  
The two men were eye-to-eye and close enough for the scent of the sexual musk that clung to Neji to fill Kiba’s nose.  
  
Kiba made a face. “I must be losing my touch”, he told Neji. “I was so busy trying to dodge the kid to get to Shika I didn’t realize I was running smack-dab into his nameless boss.”  
  
“You’ve lost a lot more than just your touch”, Neji responded, and smirked. “But you know that now, don’t you?”  
  
Kiba snorted. “You think you’ve won? I won’t give up that easily.”  
  
Neji folded his arms across his chest and shifted his weight to the other leg. “Why not?” he asked. “You won’t get him back. What do you think that whole scene at the restaurant today was all about? If you had a snowball’s chance in hell I wouldn’t be here right now licking Shikamaru’s sweetness off my lips, and he wouldn’t be in the bedroom picking carpet fiber out of his teeth.”  
  
Neji didn’t wait for a reaction. “I know you. You’re as transparent as plastic wrap. Shikamaru was all yours but he wasn’t enough for you, was he? You had to have another disciple to worship you. If I had to guess, I’d say you and the other one have since parted ways, and now you’re wandering the land like a king without a kingdom to rule and you thought, ‘hey, I’ll just go back and be the sun and the moon in  _Shika’s_  world again’.  
  
Except, as in other aspects of your life I strongly suspect, you’re a day late and a dollar short.”  
  
Kiba clenched his jaw. Once again, things weren’t working out like he’d planned. Someone else with whom Shika worked had joined forces with that Zebudah kid in thwarting Kiba’s efforts to get him. That person was now standing in front of him reeking as if he’d pulled out of Shika to answer the door, and— _accurately,_  he was loathe to admit--reciting his life to him.  
  
Kiba hated that Shika had left him after he’d found out about Temujin. He hated that the beta he’d found to replace Shika had not only left him as well, but took Temujin with him. He hated that Zabola was still around and was as loyal to Shika as ever. He hated that Shika had replaced him with someone new, someone Kiba also found attractive but who showed no interest in him.  
  
What was he doing wrong? He was a good-looking professional athlete with a fast car and lots of money. Why weren’t any of his relationships working the way he intended?  
  
How did a pencil-pushing gadget head  _prom queen_  manage to get the jump on  _him?_  
  
He could probably drop this lightweight with one punch. Then he could go inside Shika’s apartment and confront him again. Yeah.  
  
Of course, the police would probably become involved again, which meant he’d have to talk his way out of it for the second time in a single day. Even if he managed to pull it off, the publicity would not work in his favor.  
  
And then there was ‘the Matterhorn’, who would certainly be back, not only to avenge Shika, but his and Shika’s boss as well.  
  
Kiba made a point of trying to avoid the kid for good reasons. He knew that another round with him would likely result in career-ending injuries.  
  
No way was he taking that risk off the football field without paying ticketholders to watch.  _He_  was a commodity.  
  
No, Kiba realized, as much as he knew he would enjoy decking the prom queen it would serve no useful purpose.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
A petulant Kiba narrowed his eyes at his former lover’s boss. “You know, it occurs to me that maybe the reason you know me so well is that we’re so much alike.”  
  
He reached out with one hand and fingered a silky lock of Neji’s hair that rested on his shoulder before pulling his hand back, resisting a strong urge to touch his skin.  
  
“Maybe that means he’ll catch you with someone else and leave you too.”  
  
Neji didn’t rise to the bait. “Are you done?” he asked the bitter man.  
  
 _Bastard._  
  
Kiba was reluctant to admit it, but he  _was_  done. As he stood inhaling the provocative scent of the two men, he realized he’d been counting on Shikamaru’s loneliness in his linear design to win him back. And without that card to play, he had nothing.  
  
Kiba felt his enthusiasm waning.  
  
He took one last look at the incumbent, shrugging his broad shoulders.  
  
“You know he tries very hard”, Kiba stated. “Too hard. Like he knows he isn’t quite good enough and that if he doesn’t, you’ll figure it out too.”  
  
Kiba watched the pretty man’s face intently.  
  
Neji blinked slowly, the only indication he’d understood the man’s concession for what it was.  
  
 _Sore loser._  
  
“You’re a real asshole”, Neji stated, and then, knowing they  _were_  done, slowly stepped back and closed himself inside the apartment again.  
  
Kiba didn’t move. He stood and watched the door a little longer, his ego not having quite given up on Shika’s return even as the rest of him resigned itself to the fact that they were, for all practical intents and purposes, over for good.  
  
He ran a hand through his unruly hair before turning slowly to leave, refusing to allow himself to look back.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Neji locked the door, then turned around and leaned against it, closing his eyes and expelling a long breath. He was awfully glad that scene was over. Two encounters in one day were a bit more emotionally taxing than he’d anticipated.  
  
Neji felt sure he had achieved the objective, though. There had been no violence, and he was confident the man had been properly convinced there was no reason for him to bother Shikamaru again.  
  
The man had never even figured out Neji’s name.  
  
“You okay?” Shikamaru asked in a calm voice.  
  
He stood at the entrance to the hall wearing a towel wrapped around his waist, shoulder-length dark locks loose and framing his handsome face.  
  
He’d been watching them at the door, where they stood facing each other like two warriors in battle, a little worried for his current lover. As predictable as his former lover was, he  _could_  be something of a wild card when he wasn’t getting his way.  
  
The outcome would have been the same no matter what. Kiba never stood a chance, and certainly not against Neji.  
  
Neji, Shikamaru decided as he watched him, was his celebration--of a part of his life that had been reborn from the ashes of something irredeemably flawed.  
  
Said celebration opened his eyes at the stimulating sound of his lover’s voice and looked at Shikamaru.  
  
His angel was still there, still safe, and worried for him.  
  
Neji had defended his lover’s honor—without violence--and this time, sent his enemy packing for good.  
  
At least, he hoped.  
  
He’d achieved redemption, and it made him smile.  
  
“I’m fine”, he told Shikamaru, advancing on him. In only a few short strides he was there in front of him, his hand on that towel.  
  
“Are you?” he asked, running his fingers along the rim of the towel where it met the skin of Shikamaru’s waist.  
  
Shikamaru nodded. Neji’s knuckles were warm against his flesh.  
  
“Good”, Neji exclaimed before jerking the towel free of his lover’s waist.  
  
He bent his head to lick the soft skin of Shikamaru’s shoulder before sinking his teeth into it, needing to claim him as his own once more. Shikamaru’s arms wrapped around Neji’s waist and he arched his body against his, moaning in accord.  
  
Their erections danced. Both bodies were warm and still reeked of their coupling. Neji’s hands were suddenly everywhere on Shikamaru, as if discovering him for the first time.  
  
 _“Neji”,_  Shikamaru began when a hand began to play with his backside, “don’t you want to eat first?”  
  
Skilled fingers breached that first ring of muscles. “You’re still stretched and wet”, Neji answered.  
  
“Neji—“  
  
It was as much as Shikamaru could say before he felt himself being bodily lifted and repositioned with his back against the hallway wall. Neji thrust an urgent tongue into his mouth, tasting him.  
  
“Undress me”, he growled.  
  
Shikamaru made quick work of pulling his pants down, mindful of the throbbing hardness being loosed.   
  
He licked the tip of Neji’s erection once more, unable to resist, before standing up.  
  
Neji stepped out of the pants and reached for Shikamaru, ready to burn off that buildup of anxious energy in order to show him just how happy he was that they were going to stay together.  
  
But his lover stopped him. “Not here”, Shikamaru pleaded. “I won’t be able to stand, and that carpet is going to skin me alive. Come to bed”, he told him.  
  
Neji scooped Shikamaru’s firm body up into his arms bridal style.  
  
“I can walk”, Shikamaru told him as wrapped his arms around the man’s neck. Why did the man insist on carrying him so often?  
  
“Can you walk fast?” Neji responded, and they both smiled.  
  
Before Shikamaru could answer, Neji practically bolted down the hall and into the bedroom, where he unceremoniously dropped Shikamaru onto the bed on his back.  
  
“Hey!” he exclaimed as the weight of Neji’s body settled over him. Impatient hands pulled his knees apart.  
  
Neji did a makeshift job of lubing his ready erection before enclosing his lover’s lean hips in an iron grip and spearing forward, piercing him hard.  
  
Shikamaru squeezed his eyes shut and hissed.  
  
“ _Fuck_  that hurts”, he grunted.  
  
Neji smirked. “Is that a complaint?” he murmured in a sexy voice.  
  
Shikamaru spread his legs wider and shook his head in response, breathing hard.  
  
“You like my tempest, don’t you?” Neji whispered seductively in Shikamaru’s ear. “Steel dick…abrupt penetration…hot balls against your ass. That pain hurts good, doesn’t it?”  
  
When Shikamaru didn’t answer, Neji rotated his hips and then smiled when Shikamaru moaned.  
  
“Look at the way your ass swallows me whole…like it  _owns_  me.”  
  
Neji pulled back from that tight heat as his lover moaned and curled his hips into a precision thrust, nailing Shikamaru’s prostate dead-on. The sound of the smaller man’s startled moans was like a drug to his ears.  
  
“Did I get it, baby?” he asked, withdrawing and thrusting again.  
  
Shikamaru arched sharply and hissed. “ _Ah,_  Neji, for the love of God, just do it!” he wailed.  
  
Neji chuckled. “And you said  _I_  was insatiable”, he said as he snaked a hand between their sweaty torsos to grab Shikamaru’s cock.  
  
“I wish there were two of me. Together we’d rock your sweet ass twice as hard…your screams would frighten the neighbors”, he told his lover, stroking his hot, hard erection.  
  
 _Oh, God._  
  
The image inspired by those mind-scrambling words of two naked Nejis pleasuring him was wrecking Shikamaru’s brain. He was close to release...too close.  
  
“ _Fuck,_  Neji, don’t make me come like this”, he pleaded.  
  
“Then how  _would_  you like me to do it?” Neji asked as he tugged on that cock in his hand.  
  
Shikamaru arched into that stroke. “You  _know_  how”, he breathed. “Come on, Neji, don’t make me wait anymore. Please.”  
  
“God, Shikamaru, I just fucked you hard twenty minutes ago”, Neji whispered in his ear. “You were barely walking. Those rug burns must  _still_  be smarting, and you want me to do it  _again?”_  
  
Neji’s sexy whispers were melting Shikamaru. “God, yes, Neji  _please”,_  he whined.  
  
Neji stroked him faster, and he gasped.  
  
“You’ve got a slutty hole, you know that?” he purred. “The way it swallows me as I sink inside, and it forces me to pound it from all these different positions…god dammit, Shikamaru, I’ve never  _seen_  a hole so slutty”, he continued.  
  
“But this hole is for me, and I’ve got to keep it satisfied”, he finished.  
  
Neji pulled back and thrust forward with a grunt, hard enough to jostle Shikamaru’s still-squirming form.  
  
“Is that how you want it?” he asked.  
  
Shikamaru smiled. His lover was so fucking hot. He manhandled him perfectly, touching him all the right ways and providing just the right level of pain.  
  
And he had the most obscene mouth…  
  
Gone was the repressed soul from only a month ago. In his place was the man with whom Shikamaru felt free to be his most wanton sexual self, someone who had so far never failed to give him what he needed.  
  
“More”, Shikamaru growled.  
  
Neji removed his hand from his lover’s cock and positioned his legs so that Shikamaru’s body was practically folded in half beneath him.  
  
“All you can handle”, he promised.  
  
Pouring the anger and jealousy and worry and angst of the day into his movements, Neji began a deep and deliberate piston inside his lover. A very happy Shikamaru yelped and stroked himself as pained pleasure in the form of Neji’s grunting thrusts caused his world to spin wildly out of control. There was white behind his eyes, and then stars as he howled Neji’s name until his throat burned and came like a wild animal.  
  
Pleased that he had again redeemed himself, Neji came with squinting, grunting, teeth-clenching intensity before his world faded to black.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
The rhythmic humming of his cell phone slowly brought Neji out of the darkness. He opened his eyes to a familiar scene and smiled.  
  
The two men lay together in Shikamaru’s bed, spooning beneath the bed sheet covered by a generously fluffy goose-down comforter. Soft snores emitted from the still-sleeping man, who’d hardly moved during the night.  
  
Neji reached over to Shikamaru’s bedside table for his cell phone, slid it open and placed it to his ear beneath the covers.  
  
“Yes”, he mumbled in his throaty, raspy, morning-after voice.  
  
“Are you all right?” a monotone on the other end asked.  
  
It was Zabuza.  
  
 _Oh, shit._  
  
Neji peeked over the covers at the clock on the bedside table. The numbers 10:37 A.M. were displayed.  
  
Another workday morning bites the dust.  
  
Neji sighed. “We’re fine”, he finally answered. “Is the program manager looking for me again?”  
  
“Not yet”, Zabuza answered. “But don’t worry, I’ve got it covered.”  
  
“I appreciate that”, Neji told him.  
  
He looked at Shikamaru, who was still sound asleep. After the previous night’s debauchery he was sure the man would not be doing much of anything, let alone walking, and Neji had no intention of leaving him alone.  
  
“Listen, we won’t be in today. If you guys want to take off around noon I have no objection. Just employ a little stealth, all right?”  
  
“I’ll let them know”, Zabuza responded.  
  
There was a pause, and Neji sensed that his subordinate wanted to say something.  
  
“Is there something else?” the boss man asked.  
  
Another pause.  
  
“Call if you need anything”, Zabuza responded before a tone signaled the end of the phone call.  
  
Neji closed his phone with a smirk.  
  
He’d been dating Zabuza’s friend for a month, and the three men had had adjustments to make in that time. Within the dynamic of their friendship, Zabuza had assumed the role of Shikamaru’s protector, something Neji at times did not understand. To him, Zabuza acted more the part of a boyfriend than a friend. But he wasn’t, nor had he been at any time, so Neji did not make an issue of their slightly overlapping roles.  
  
It was a challenge, Neji understood, to be good friends with the guy who dated his boss, and he could see that Zabuza was still adjusting to the changing boundaries.  
  
Neji thought it somewhat peculiar that Zabuza, a straight man, spent so much time with men who obviously weren’t. He had observed the large, handsome man’s interaction with both Shikamaru and Haku, and wondered if it had yet occurred to him that Haku had feelings for him.  
  
Still, Neji was glad of Zabuza’s loyalty. He’d been a good friend to Shikamaru and had proven on more than one occasion to be the right person to have around.  
  
Neji set his phone back on the bedside table and spooned Shikamaru’s sleeping form with his own warm, naked one again, thinking that Zabuza had somehow become an ‘in-law’ of sorts and that he probably deserved a raise.  
  
And then he grinned, content with life as he drifted back to sleep with his lover in his arms.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
“Can you get off?” Zabuza asked Haku, who sat at Shikamaru’s desk.  
  
“Sure”, he replied with a smile. “What’s the plan?”  
  
“Let’s go see  _Star Trek!”_  Tenten suggested with enthusiasm.  
  
Lee’s eyes lit up.  
  
“Tenten”, Haku responded, “you wouldn’t by any chance be suggesting we go see a movie in the middle of a weekday afternoon because you think no one will be there to catch you feeling up your boyfriend’s pole?”  
  
Tenten made a devious face. “What if I am?” she countered.  
  
Haku crossed his arms. The two were worse than teenagers since they’d gotten together and it had caused its share of trouble.  
  
“Well then I think we need to set some ground rules. You guys stay at least three rows distance from us. If someone asks if I’m your sister, say no. And if they catch you on your knees between Lee’s legs again, don’t use that excuse about looking for your earring, because nobody’s buying it. Understood?”  
  
Tenten couldn’t stop herself from blushing. How had Haku found out about that?  
  
“I-it was an expensive earring”, Lee supplied.  
  
Zabuza chuckled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N** : All right! Neji wins! And why wouldn’t he? He is THE MAN!
> 
> The bunnies are at it again. I tried a new formula with that lemon. Personally, I think it’s pretty hot. Neji’s quite the potty mouth, isn’t he?
> 
> And yes, hints of LeeTen. I decided they were a couple and didn’t want to leave them out of the sequel completely. They are a mess, aren’t they?
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you've enjoyed this.

**Author's Note:**

> A Russian translation of this fanfic can be found [here](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7864490/1/History-Russian-version).


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